"Donald Rumsfeld is trying to justify the failure experienced by his troops in Iraq as the result of weather conditions and others by accusing other parties of having passed military equipment to Iraq," the foreign ministry spokesman told the official Sana news agency.

At a Pentagon news briefing earlier Friday, Rumsfeld said: "We have information that shipments of military supplies have been crossing the border from Syria into Iraq, including night vision goggles," he said at a Pentagon news conference.

"These deliveries pose a direct threat to the lives of coalition forces. We consider such trafficking as hostile acts and will hold the Syrian government accountable for such shipments," he said.

He declined to say whether the Syrian government was behind the shipments, but stressed: "They control their border. We're hopeful that kind of thing does not happen again," he said.

"There is no question but that to the extent military supplies, equipment or people move borders beteween Iraq and Syria that it vastly complicates our situation," he said.

WAR.WIRE